Amherst County’s apple and peach orchards expect fine year

It’s barely past 9 a.m. on July 25, but Morris Orchard in Monroe is already bursting with life.

Goats, cats, dogs and a donkey greet customers as they pull up to the deep red packing shed to purchase peaches, early season apples and other produce from the orchard.

Peaches – currently the orchard’s main draw – are in full swing in Amherst and Nelson Counties, which are home to six peach and seven apple orchards.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced last week the USDA Agricultural Statistics Service said the 2008 Virginia peach crop will total 4,200 tons. That would represent an increase of 2,600 tons over the 2007 crop and 200 tons over the 2006 crop.

Apple harvest
in Amherst
(in pounds)
1997: 4,564,000
1998: 4,573,000
1999: 4,336,000
2000: 5,980,000
2001: 5,424,000
2002: 4,627,000
2003: 4,400,000
2004: 4,840,000
2005: 4,580,000
2006: 3,664,000

Scott Barnes of Morris Orchard said they anticipated everyone having a good crop of peaches this year.

“Last year’s crop was small. There was a lot of frost, and we just about had enough peaches to serve our retail customers,” Barnes said.

“This year, we’ve kind of anticipated a big crop with everybody,” he said, “so in the spring, we thinned out the crop to get big-sized peaches.”

Bennett Saunders, of Saunder’s Brothers Nursery and Orchard in Piney River, said this year’s crop looks to be better than last year’s when freezing temperatures during Easter weekend contributed to the loss of more than 40 percent of the orchard’s 50-acre crop of peaches.

“We had a good spring with no freezing temperatures,” he said. “We had good rain early, and we had sufficient rain since.”

Saunders’ sentiments were echoed throughout the other orchards in the counties.

Fran May, of Rock Hill Orchard in Monroe, said each crop is different, but this year’s is looking good.

“You never know until you get the crop off the trees,” May said. “Every year is different, but for the most part it’s not bad.

“This year has been really good.”

When the peach crop begins to drop off, apples come into season.

Some orchards are already picking their summer varieties of apples, but Amherst County Extension Agent Bill Seay said apples will start to be harvested in August.

Nelson County Extension Agent Mike LaChance said the crop outcome this season for apples is hard to predict because of periods of dry weather.

“It’s kind of touchy right now, to tell the truth,” LaChance said. “We have an ongoing drought, but in terms of our tree and vine crops, they’re much more resilient to drought.”